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00:00Red, green, and blue are the colors we see here, here, and here.
00:15RGB are the colors that are part of everything we see on screens, television, computer, and mobile phones.
00:22This detail that almost no one consciously notices when watching the film for the first time,
00:28but which remains in our brains, is just one of the many psychological tricks that Satoshi put into Perfect Blue.
00:41Satoshi Kan left us too soon.
00:43His short career as a director gave us gems like Paprika, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers,
00:50and Perfect Blue was his first film.
00:52To everyone's surprise, especially Satoshi, it was incredibly well-received by audiences, especially abroad.
01:00Its mix of fantasy and reality, and its cinematic language, set it apart from other anime,
01:06and over time it has become a cult classic, so much so that it has become a reference for other film directors,
01:12such as Christopher Nolan or Darren Aronofsky, who have gone so far as to copy identical shots or entire ideas from films.
01:19Let's analyze all the secrets hidden in the film and how it explores fame,
01:32identity, and obsession through subtext and almost subliminal images.
01:43So get comfortable because by the end of the video you might end up questioning your own reality.
01:49Satoshi was born in 1963 and knew from a young age that he wanted to be an animator.
01:58He started out drawing manga until he found work as an assistant to Katsujiro Tomo, the creator of Akira.
02:05He began by sketching and animating several manga works, but over time he also began writing scripts
02:11and in 1992 he wrote the script for Magnetic Rose.
02:16In his story, we can see the genesis of what would define his style until the end of his life.
02:21A very sophisticated visual way of narrating and the mix of dreams, reality, and fantasy.
02:28He received commissions here and there, including being the animator for episode 2 of Yo-Yo's Bizard Adventure
02:34and later as writer and director of episode 5.
02:37It was then in 1994 when the production company Mattis became interested in his work and decided to make him an offer.
02:44They wanted to make an animated film adaptation of Yoshikasu Takeuchi's novel Perfect Blue Complete Metamorphosis
02:51and asked Satoshi to direct it.
02:53At first, he hadn't been interested because the novel had action and psychological horror, yes, but its story was very flat.
03:02And when he met with the production company and the author of the book,
03:06he told them some ideas he had to change the source material and they both agreed.
03:11Yoshikasu gave him total freedom to alter his novel,
03:14but only set three conditions that could not be changed under any circumstances.
03:19The main character had to be a B-class idol.
03:21It had to have a crazy stalker fan and it had to be a horror movie.
03:27So, Satoshi got to work with the screenwriter Satayuki Murai.
03:31And before he started writing, Satoshi did some solo work to think about the story.
03:37First, he needed to find a central theme that would guide the film.
03:41And, inspired by his side jobs and ideas from cancelled projects that never came to light,
03:46he kept coming up with different things he wanted to explore.
03:48He came up with the concept of a presence that is more real than oneself.
03:54A presence that is being created on the internet without the protagonist knowing it.
04:01And this presence is a past self of the protagonist herself that shouldn't exist,
04:05but is brought to life by the consciousness of the fans who will it to exist with all their might.
04:10The protagonist simultaneously faces her own regrets about changing and the desire to return to her comfort zone.
04:20And when this past self materializes, she must confront herself for the first time.
04:25Satoshi told him the basics of the story that was starting to form in his head,
04:30and Murai shaped it into the script.
04:31Their way of working consisted of Murai giving Satoshi a first draft for him to review and Satoshi returning the draft,
04:39removing and adding ideas to the different scenes.
04:42Some of his inspirations for structuring the story were the player or the Hollywood game in Spanish and Slaughterhouse 5 to create the subjective timelines.
04:51And by tweaking here and there, Satoshi made the story his own.
04:58Before, the idea was some perverted fans attack a girl because they can't forgive her for changing her image,
05:04but Satoshi turned it into a story about me self-destructing, making it much more interesting.
05:11Once the script was created, Satoshi drew the storyboards for the entire film.
05:15He drew every cut, every composition, the duration of each scene, all the facial expressions,
05:22the clothing of the secondary characters, the backgrounds, the settings, the props.
05:27And in this phase, they continued to tweak and polish the story, making small changes.
05:32In interviews, he says that it was a real dream for him to be able to do this,
05:36because doing something he enjoyed so much and being able to make money from it was something spectacular.
05:41And after almost a year of work, he drew 100 cuts in total, of which they had to remove at least 100.
05:50When you watch a Satoshi film, you never know if what you're seeing is real or not.
05:57You never know if it's a dream, an event, a memory or a fantasy.
06:01And that's because for Satoshi, they're all equally relevant.
06:07The fact that something doesn't happen in the physical world doesn't make it any less real for him.
06:12He gives them all the same argumentative weight and places them within the narrative impulses to move the story forward.
06:20Because in essence, what happens in our heads is as real as life itself
06:24and profoundly influences our way of being and how we live.
06:27He blurs the lines between dreams and reality, memories and events, and me and others.
06:34And how does he do it?
06:35Well, on the one hand, he misleads through editing.
06:38The very first scene we see in the film was conceived with the idea of confusing the viewer.
06:43When they proposed the project to him, they told him it was going to be an OVA,
06:47that is, it was going to be available for rent on VHS and video stores.
06:51So, Satoshi thought that the person who picked up the tape from the shelf and saw that cover with cartoons,
06:57which were somewhat realistic and terrifying,
07:00would be very disconcerted to see that the first scene shows three super colorful and childlike Power Rangers,
07:06as if they had accidentally picked up the wrong tape.
07:08But then we see that no, they are on a stage.
07:11And the guy was busy.
07:13He constantly shows images that are not what they seem,
07:16like this light that looks like a police light.
07:18But in the next cut, we see that it is of a small child stroller.
07:23What seems to be a moment in Mima's daily life is actually part of a shoot.
07:29This makes it very difficult to predict what is going to happen or what we are seeing,
07:34but above all to know when there is real danger or not.
07:38And this type of editing highlights the same theme of the film itself,
07:42such as the scene where they are filming a group Viola.
07:44Visually, it seems like it is a Viola,
07:50but it is not because they are acting on a film set.
07:53But this constant play of images that seem to be something that they are not
07:56is what causes us this confusion and discomfort.
07:58The way of jumping from one timeline to another also creates a feeling of being in a dream,
08:12as if everything is happening at once.
08:16In the first 10 minutes of the film,
08:18Mima is described in three different moments of her life.
08:21Her life as an idol,
08:23her private life and her life at the moment of deciding to become an actress.
08:28She moves from one timeline to another with transitions that follow the movement of her gestures or actions,
08:34giving a Yavi feeling.
08:35All these visual tricks make us distrust everything we see.
08:40But, at the same time,
08:42what we see is the only thing that tells us the story.
08:45So we have no choice but to immerse ourselves in this sea of dreams and fantasies that,
08:49despite being dreams and fantasies,
08:51tell us the inner truths of the characters.
08:54When we see Mima killing the photographer with the ice pick,
08:57we are suspicious because it could be a dream.
09:00But what we do understand is that whether it is real or not,
09:04Mima has a subconscious hatred for the photographer.
09:07Despite the fact that he has made her popular,
09:09she has contradictory and dark feelings.
09:12And deep down,
09:13she actually wants him dead.
09:19Another way of communicating through the unconscious is through colors.
09:25The title itself,
09:26Perfect Blue,
09:27refers to the color blue,
09:29which represents the idealized,
09:31pure and perfect image that Mima projects with her image as an idol.
09:35A very unreal mirage that ends up stained by intense reds
09:38that symbolize the madness into which her psyche descends
09:41and her internal chaos and her transformation,
09:44actress,
09:44her true reality.
09:47I won't go into the color red in more detail because,
09:51I mean,
09:51there are already 1,000 videos analyzing it.
09:54But I would like to comment on the way Satoshi plays with light and shadow.
09:57On several occasions,
10:01Satoshi inserts white screens that are more than just blank.
10:04They are accompanied by a super intense light that ends up turning white.
10:08Satoshi used these white flashes to reference the mental state of going blank,
10:15which for us this expression simply means forgetting what you were going to say,
10:19but in Japan it has a different meaning.
10:25Going blank for them means that your mind goes blank when you are in a state of panic or when you are very upset or confused and are unable to think rationally.
10:33So Satoshi used it to represent the psychological confusion that Mima has at key moments.
10:42Another main theme of the film is light and shadow.
10:47The people who are on stage in the light and the people who are not in the shadow.
10:51That's why we can see the virtual Mima with a white flash that almost makes her seem more real than Mima herself
10:59because she's illuminated on stage for everyone to see, right?
11:04And Mima, however, is shadowed because she's feeling like an imposter at that moment.
11:09Also, for example, in the viola scene, images of Mima's face follow one another with a very powerful white light
11:23until her image appears as Mima wrapped in light on stage, but also confused by everything that's happening to her.
11:29The blur changes to a wall light that goes out, symbolizing now that they're no longer on stage
11:36and also that Mima's own inner light has gone out after what happened.
11:43Then the next shot is her in the shadows, right where the lights are off and she's dressed in black as if in mourning,
11:49symbolizing that her idol self has definitely died.
11:52Show business is pretty murky, but this comes as no surprise to anyone.
12:02It's an unstoppable money-making machine that lives off of using people.
12:07That is, he uses people to put them in front of the camera and exploit their image.
12:11And at the same time, he depends on all the people who consume what they see through a screen.
12:16Satoshi also wanted to leave an implicit criticism of this world,
12:19so it is no coincidence that the colors of the Power Rangers that appear at the beginning
12:23have the colors of RGB, red, green and blue, which are the ones that are broadcast on a normal television.
12:30Also when the supposed Mima is murdering the photographer,
12:33it is no coincidence that three spotlights of those same three colors appear in the background,
12:38in addition to being present in practically all the shots.
12:41The same narrative resource of using the fictional series Double Bind within the plot as a parody
12:48is a way of criticizing the Japanese television dramas that were produced at that time and imitated Hollywood trends.
12:56Also the detail that in the idol concerts you do not see any women, not a mother, not teenagers, girls, nothing.
13:03All you see are a bunch of young and middle-aged men capturing the girls, every move with their cameras.
13:11It makes us wonder who consumes idols and why they consume them.
13:16The fact that the screenwriter also suggests mockery and even fun,
13:20the idea of putting an idol in a scene of violence speaks clearly about what really moves the audience
13:26to consume these people, morbidity and sexual fantasy.
13:29This idea is also highlighted with moments like when the producer has just told Mima
13:35that they are going to start filming and the camera movement that follows looks like an erection.
13:42At the same time, people make worshipping these people part of their identity.
13:47When people become fans of someone or something, they incorporate that quality into their personality.
13:52They say to themselves, I like this person.
13:54It defines who I am.
13:56And that makes them feel like they have some kind of ownership over that person.
14:00And at the same time, they refuse to see the real person behind that character they see on screen.
14:06Anyway, you know what they say, never want to meet your idols.
14:11This amalgam of feelings when it comes to perceiving and consuming people
14:15ends up causing distortions in the personality of all those involved,
14:19both the person being consumed and the person consuming.
14:22On the one hand, the artist is confused about their own identity
14:27because they project a personality in front of the camera that is not themselves
14:31and when they see themselves on that screen, they depersonalize themselves
14:35because they know they are not themselves and wonder, who the hell are they really?
14:39And on the other hand, the viewer dehumanizes the person they see on that screen.
14:44That's why I'm surprised at how incredibly relevant this film is in these times.
14:48I mean, we've all created an online personality that projects what we decide to show to others.
14:56There are more and more YouTubers, streamers, content creators, micro-influencers
15:01and they all live with having left an online mark.
15:04A mark of a past personality that no longer exists,
15:07but that will remain immortalized forever on the web.
15:09These identity disorders occur due to cameras and screens
15:15where our image is recorded as something immutable and frozen in time.
15:21And the fact of observing ourselves and seeing that we are no longer as we were before,
15:25sometimes even to the point of not recognizing ourselves in those images,
15:29is confusing to say the least.
15:30When we project a completely different personality to others,
15:35or when we are alone,
15:36which ends up causing a profound dissociation and contradiction with ourselves.
15:42The constant anxiety of performing a personality that is like
15:45anxiety about changing and that people will unfollow you
15:49because they no longer like how you have changed.
15:51Well, Tashikin, through Perfect Blue,
15:54explored all the mental disorders that living within a society with these anxieties can cause us.
15:59I mean, the same scene of the same virtual person chasing you like a psychopath
16:05is literally your most funniest tweets chasing you years later.
16:10Ultimately, it explores the dark side of parasocial relationships
16:14and how they cause us problems when it comes to developing as healthy people.
16:20Satoshi constantly highlights this visually through the image of the mask.
16:24The Power Rangers at the beginning wear masks like three different masked personalities.
16:29Or during the murder of the photographer,
16:32the image of a mask is also interspersed to show us that the character we see also wears a mask inside everyone.
16:40We have several people living at the same time and I don't know if you knew this,
16:44but in fact the origin of the word persona in Latin means mask of an actor or theatrical character
16:49and that's why we use words like personalities.
16:51For God's sake, we can't even be the same person on the same day.
16:57You're not the same when you just woke up, when you're sick,
17:00when you're at work or if you're talking to a loved one or a stranger.
17:06It's not that we only change throughout life,
17:09but that throughout the same day we use our different masks for different situations in life.
17:13And I think Perfect Blue especially explores how there are two specific people who pressure us
17:28and make us suffer, especially our past selves and our future selves.
17:33And the confusion and chaos that our present selves suffer when dealing with their other selves.
17:38On the one hand, our past selves, even though they no longer exist,
17:42dictate what we are, what supposedly defines us,
17:46and how difficult it is to escape from the person we have created of ourselves and projected onto others.
17:58On the other hand, our future selves, also imaginary,
18:02are a set of expectations about ourselves,
18:04about what we want to project in the future and how we want to be perceived by others.
18:11And this future selves pressure us to do things that we don't really want to do in the present,
18:16but that this future selves tell us to do in order to become that person we have imagined ourselves to be.
18:24Like when Mima ends up filming a video scene and an erotic photoshoot,
18:29even though it is something she would never do of her own free will.
18:31I think that when Mima says I am real in the rearview mirror at the end,
18:37Satoshi did it with intention.
18:39It baffles us that he says it's real while looking in the mirror
18:42because throughout the entire film they've shown us that reflections equal evil.
18:47But I think that's precisely why he says it while looking in the mirror.
18:52It's a way of saying that this isn't the end of his story,
18:55nor is it the end of any of our stories,
18:57because finding our true selves is a pipe dream.
19:00There's no such thing as a true self,
19:04because after one change, another will come and change us.
19:08And after that change, another will come and change us again,
19:12and so on throughout our lives.
19:15But we have to learn to relate to our differences in a healthy way
19:18so as not to fall into the distortion of ourselves by obsessing over our past or our future.
19:23To accept that we are never the same person and that we are malleable.
19:30And to let ourselves flow without letting our past selves define who we are forever,
19:35and without letting our future selves overwhelm us with their demands.
19:38In the end, all we can do is stay with ourselves,
19:43with our present selves, and see what happens.
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